What Should the Presidential Candidates Discuss about Education?

Joel Klein, in the March 4, 2012 WP Opinions in the Washington Post, says that Education Must Move Center Stage in the Presidential Election. Klein notes that the candidates only spent about 1% of their time talking about education reform. This is especially disheartening in an era when the U.S. “spends more on its schools than most other wealthy nations ... yet ranks in the middle to the bottom of the pack on international comparisons.” Klein says that other countries are “out-educating” us and suggests that the candidates back the following: Acceleration of the Common Core Standards, Professionalization of Teaching, and Promoting Choice and Innovation.

Romney’s Education Agenda

Governor Mitt Romney, who will most likely be the Republican Party nominee, talked about his education agenda at the Latino Coalition’s Economic Summit. His ideas include using funds from Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to give parents the opportunity to use these funds (approximately $30 billion) for use in charter schools, online course, tutoring, and private education. He plans to expand the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program and lessen Federal micromanagement of schools. The nominee believes that state and local municipalities know better what their schools need than does the Federal government and that what helps students move forward are good teachers, not smaller classes.  According to Romney, we need to “hire the best and brightest to be teachers, pay them properly, make sure you have school choice, test your kids to see if they are meeting the standards that need to be met, and make sure that the parents are in charge. As President, I will stand up to the National Teachers’ Unions...”

President Obama and Education

President Obama isn’t in favor of providing public money for vouchers, but he is in favor of high-performing charter schools. He would like all states to accept the Common Core Standards for mathematics and English in order: (1) to make education more consistent for students who move to different states and (2) to create more reliable assessments. Obama took college aid funding from private banks and had the government distribute loans directly to students and provided funding to some states to implement “a broader range of assessments that can evaluate higher-order skills, including students’ abilities to use technology, conduct research, engage in scientific investigations, solve problems, and present and defend their ideas.” Race to the Top money became available both for creation of Common Core Standards and improvements in preschool education. During Obama’s administration there was increased funding for programs related to STEM teachers and courses and funding to experiment with the best systems for teacher evaluation and merit pay.